Father of the wood
When I first went looking for the Father of the Wood, I started with the assumption that the oldest tree that Bicknor Wood could boast would turn out to be an oak. It was likely to be one of the large oaks in the south-eastern corner, or perhaps the one where the split path re-joins itself. To this end, I tied some appropriately spaced knots in a piece of string and set out to measure them.
The methodology was straightforward; measure the girth of the tree at the waist (around 1.5m from the ground). Biggest wins. Simple.
There is a scale that can be used to calculate age by measuring the girth of an oak. It is not a perfect science, but in a small wood, it should work well as a comparative scale. In fact there are two scales, no, three. Essentially it still boils down to 'biggest wins', but it would be interesting to find a ball-park age for the oaks.
I managed to get sidetracked for the rest of the afternoon trying to find a way to estimate the age of a coppice stump in the belief that some of the stumps from which the sweet chestnut stems regrow could be truly ancient. It appears that there is not a satisfactory way to measure a coppice for age and I managed to eliminate them from the race in another way so that I could return my attention to the oaks.
I declare Father of the Wood to be the oldest and largest tree, a sessile oak at the furthest point east on the very edge of the wood, adjacent to the latest Redrow development. It can be seen if you stand on the corner of the path where the entrance from The Coppice used to be and look east. Click this link for the exact location and select the satellite view from the bottom right corner.
Girth at waist (1.5m from the ground) 442 cms
Estimated Age; 232 years.
In the year 1789, George Washington became President of the United States, Fletcher Christian led the Mutiny on the Bounty and the French Revolution started with the storming of the Bastille.
In search of a name for our oldest tree, a rather glorious quirk of coincidence occurred. We can take inspiration from what3words.com This website has reduced the world's surface to small squares and allocated each square with 3 words to distinguish them. The size of our tree extends across a few of the squares, but one of them is, appropriately, episode.tolerable.guardian This is a tree that stands at the eastern edge of the wood, watching every morning for the sun to rise. To those that might encroach, it is a clear sign that this is where the development stops and the woodland starts. This far and no further. Here stands The Guardian.
The Guardian
This also neatly sidesteps the issue of gender. The Father of the House is the MP with the longest continuing service sitting in the House of Commons and I stole the idea before it occurred to me that oak trees are hermaphroditic, ie in possession of both male and female attributes. so, the asexual title of Guardian fits very neatly.
During the measuring, I wondered if any of the oaks had already been given distinctive titles. Does anyone refer to any of Bicknor's trees by name? Please use the comments section if you do and we will try to incorporate the names retrospectively into the post. Until then, I have taken inspiration from what3words and chosen a word at random from the trees' 3-word codes. If they don't make sense, suggest a better name and we will change it. The first tree measured for example extends across numerous 3-word codes, but one of them is tightrope.folk.succumbs The more agreeable Folk Oak, was chosen over Tightrope Oak or Succumbs Oak, so if no-one has any objections....... Click on the green link to see that this is the oak where the split path re-joins, just before the clearing with the dead tree. It works best in satellite format.
Other likely contenders were measured and their statistics are shown below along with a name selected again by choosing a mot-juste from their 3-word codes. Note that by the stricter technique of calculating age there are 7 trees over 150 years.
Victor Oak
The second largest tree in Bicknor Wood is also a sessile oak and carries bird box no.22. Victor Oak has a circumference of 375cms which, depending on your preferred methodology, gives an age range from 181-199 years. (Actually 199.5 years. We could have a 200th birthday on our hands come July). It stands on the southern edge looking onto The Coppice development.
Imperious Oak
Imperious Oak, at 359 cms was my favourite for the title. It is 170-191 years old and stands on the inside of the path at the southeast corner with a good view of The Guardian. So, sessile oaks first, second and third. Note the photo above shows Imperious Oak with The Guardian behind and to the right and Shepherds' Oak to the left.
Our other venerable challengers for the title were Facelift Oak and Scramble Oak at 160-180 and 155-172 years old respectively.
Sometimes things just work and the code for the oak in the northeast corner is flushes.alongside.corner a reference to the adjacent ditch perhaps, but let's take Corner Oak.
Comments
Post a Comment